Photonic platform based devices such as silicon photonic circuits typically require a particular state of polarization (SOP) of the incoming light, for example the transverse-electric (TE) SOP. However, in practice the incoming light may have a different SOP. Accordingly, only a portion of the incoming light may provide a usable signal to the silicon photonic component. The use of silicon photonics in datacenters may benefit from controlling the SOP of incoming light.